So, you’re an experienced PHP developer and you’re looking for your next gig. There are a lot of job boards out there, especially for freelancers, but it’s hard to value your skills and level of expertise in many of them. Here are some suggestions for finding your next job as a PHP developer.
Many position-based boards are full of employers who don’t understand the value of quality code. On the other hand, the per-project sites find that most projects receive insanely low quotes on projects (YouTube clones for $20?) by offshore developers delivering low-quality products.
There are really only two ways to find a decent PHP job, then: find freelance projects from clients that will pay for your expertise, or get a full time job. Here are some good destinations for each.
Freelance
Elance is one of the more professional freelance PHP project sites. It was Elance that Kevin Rose used to find his first developer, with the pair going on to found Digg, the largest social news site today. Elance integrates certification recognition, skills tests and a number of other features that make good developers shine; all this information is included in the project boards and customers on Elance are typically willing to pay more for high-quality freelancers.
PHP-Freelancers, while not as professional or effective as Elance, has an interesting approach to marketing its site. As a result, it is regularly come across by standard non-technical clients who understand they need somebody to program their website but don’t understand how. The country-based project listings of the system they use are ideal for finding clients in your region, and such clients could be easily persuaded to hire you based on your locality and level of expertise.
oDesk is an interesting experiment in freelancing. The idea is that people post jobs, you get hired for a particular job and then use oDesk-supplied software to allow both parties to keep in contact – and for the employer to keep tabs on where you’re at. The mere concept instills trust in employers, and with skills testing inbuilt and a focus on quality work, you may just find your next highly-valued client.
Waged
While not the largest out there, you simply can’t go past Zend’s PHP Job Board and similar JobThread-populated job boards. PHPJobs.com also features some interesting positions, although many overlap with the Zend board.
Indeed has one of the largest collections, however it’s almost entirely US-based jobs. Odin also has quite a few.
Also check out my tips on scoring a freelance PHP job.
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